For millions of passengers, booking train tickets online will be much easier when Indian Railways launches a revamped IRCTC website on July 15. Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said he was approached by students who said they faced difficulties booking tickets and that they find it hard to get train tickets because of Tatkal reservations in high demand.
The announcement took place during an interaction with students at the Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) in Jaipur, in which one student mentioned that repeated CAPTCHA verification on the present website was an inconvenience. Vaishnaw said that the new platform would be easier and more user-friendly for their bookings.
The biggest benefit of the new IRCTC website is the much bigger booking capacity. The current system can handle 32,000 ticket bookings per minute, but the new platform can handle more than 1.5 lakh bookings per minute. The new system will decrease the number of slowdowns and website crashes - especially during peak booking hours when millions of people are competing for limited seats.
The Passenger Reservation System (PRS), which is responsible for ticket reservations, also needs big improvements. The new system will be able to process over 40 lakh enquiries per minute, up from the current capacity of around 4 lakh enquiries a minute, reports say. That means that those looking for train schedules, seat availability, or fares will get responses much faster.
Indian Railways will also enhance the booking process for passengers with passenger-friendly improvements to make the booking process much quicker and more convenient. For the first time, passengers will be able to submit their preferred seats when booking tickets, which will make the booking process more convenient, flexible, and comfortable while travelling.
Another big feature is a fare calendar to help users compare ticket prices on different dates before booking tickets. This feature should help passengers find the cheapest travel options and plan their trips more effectively in advance.
The upgraded platform will also include many Indian languages, so a more inclusive booking process for people from diverse parts of the country will be made easier to access. Divyangjan (people with disabilities), students, and patients will be organized into one platform which will cut down on paperwork and give access to concession-related facilities.
The user interface has also been redesigned with simplicity in mind. The new website will remove superfluous pop-ups, flashing graphics, and CAPTCHA checks that often interrupt the booking process. This is expected to clean the platform up faster and support Tatkal ticket holders, where every second matters.
Another big improvement is the way seat availability will be displayed. Rather than checking Sleeper, AC 3 Tier, AC 2 Tier, and other travel classes separately, users will be able to see the seat availability across different classes on a single screen and make quick decisions.
The launch of the new IRCTC website is part of the overall digital transformation project in the Indian Railways to modernise the passenger services and enhance the travel experience of passengers. As new technology, a large booking capacity, and a lot of new features are introduced in the new platform (such as quick and user-friendly services for booking online railway tickets), the entire railway system is expected to be made more efficient for millions of passengers across India.
If the upgraded system works out, it would alleviate the frustration of high-demand bookings during Tatkal hours and make railway reservations more convenient than ever.
